Treatment OSDD/DID and substance abuse

[Juicewrldfan]

So I saw my therapist today and she seems to think that when I last relapsed that it was due to switching personas and that persona took over.

She specializes in trauma and addiction and it’s her own practice. I say that to say she is in no way affiliated with the dirty doctors I was seeing.

I digress—-she said because I was going to daily meetings, daily sponsorship, reading the big book and doing step work daily and suddenly one day just dropped what I was doing and went strait to the dealer and got drugs impulsively that was a complete 180 and may be due to dissassociatuve identity disorder.

I have been fighting her in the diagnosis for the past year because I don’t think it fits. Well OSDD to be more accurate which is like a minor version of DID to where you still remember things and it’s not a complete switch.

My reasoning for mentioning this here is because when you have engaged in drug using behavior after being committed to recovery don’t you feel like a switch in personas too? I’d think this is kinda common with addiction and isn’t a separate disorder.

 

[AngelsandFairiesarereal]

Hey Juice it’s good to see you,
I had a trauma therapist tell me that we all have different parts, especially people that have been through heavy traumas.

And yes (and this is going to probably make me sound insane but if it helps at all to make you feel not so alone) … yes I actually used to almost feel like I had an alter ego when I used to relapse heavy and go out using and drinking. It’s like I wasn’t good me, I was this bad girl (the girl that had to be tough and crazy at certain points in my life to survive).

There’s lots of theories of ‘different parts’ in trauma therapy. I asked one woman I was working with at the victims center ‘Do only trauma patients have different parts or everyone?’ She laughed and said “EVERYONE has different parts.”

I wish I could explain this better, (I’m having a high pain day and when I’m pushing through pain I’m not as articulate with my words as I’d like to be) … but I’ll try to keep up with this thread, and have as much interactions with you as I can. This is a very interesting subject that I’m not sure is talked about enough.

Even my name here has something to do with this all funnily enough.

Hope I said anything that made sense

Big hugs

 

[arrall]

If that 180 is her only reasoning here then it seems like a far stretch.

Are there other reasons she mentioned for why she believes that?

DID/OSDD are EXTREMELY common in people with substance abuse issues as both are generally caused by severe trauma.
With that said, this single event on its own is definitely not sufficient evidence for telling someone they have DID.

This site has a lot of excellent info and may help you figure things out:

DID Research Homepage

Dissociative identity disorder, dissociation, and trauma research made accessible for non-academic audiences.

did-research.org

You may be interested in this page in particular

The theory of Structural Dissociation works off of the assumption that no one is born with an integrated personality. Instead, infants operate based off of a loose collection of different ego states that handle their different needs- feeding, attachment to a caregiver, exploring the world around them. Over time, these ego states naturally integrate into one coherent and cohesive personality, usually by the ages of 6 or 9. However, childhood trauma disrupts this process. Different ego states are left unable to merge with each other due to conflicting needs, traumatic memories, or learned action paths or responses to trauma. One coherent sense of self cannot form when the primary caregivers of the child are inconsistent, loving one moment and abusive the next, preventing healthy attachment from occurring and instead facilitating disorganized attachment.

 

[deficiT]

I don't have experience with DID or anything, aside from second hand experience, but I will say, drugs and alcohol absolutely have the propensity to change someone's personality. Dealing with this after getting sober has been really difficult, as it's very hard to try and prove to people in your life that you have changed and aren't the same person anymore.

But as arrall said, I don't think this one circumstance is necessarily indicative of DID. Addicts impulsively use drugs all the time, that is an integral component of addiction.

 

[Juicewrldfan]

Thanks everyone for your feedback. I think she is just highly trained in dissociative disorders so she sees everything thru the lens of that and some confirmation bias is going on but maybe there are things I’m missing. My perspectives can be skewed about my own mental health some times so I guess I need to ask her at my next appointment about other instances and if there are any.

I will check out those links after my morning meeting today. Thanks again!

 

[deficiT]

Thanks everyone for your feedback. I think she is just highly trained in dissociative disorders so she sees everything thru the lens of that and some confirmation bias is going on but maybe there are things I’m missing. My perspectives can be skewed about my own mental health some times so I guess I need to ask her at my next appointment about other instances and if there are any.

I will check out those links after my morning meeting today. Thanks again!

Yeah, well definitely mention what we said to her, and see what she thinks. I think it helps to get feedback from people about therapists and what you're going through. It took me a very long time to find a good one, but now that I have one, I'm doing a lot better.

But they are human, they make mistakes. She might still be cool, just mistaken, or she could be correct, you never know. Ultimately you would just need to display more than one symptom of it, and have it exist outside of drug consumption. Look into DID more and see what you think.